28 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



These being only the stages of 55 feet and over. August, 1875, the usually 

 dry season, and February, 1884, being the highest water ever known at Cincin- 

 nati. 



When it is considered that the width of the waterway or riverbed of the 

 Ohio river has been increasing with every overflow of the water, by the caving 

 in of farms all along its course, and that today the width between the banks 

 is one-fourth greater than it was in 1832 and 1847, and therefore capable of 

 carrying a much greater volume of water than in the earlier times, it will be 

 readily recognized that with the rapid denudation of the forest areas and 

 erosion of the fertile soil capable of absorbing large quantities of water, the 

 volume of water flowing away in one brief period is far greater than in times 

 when the forest areas were so much larger. 



The writer, as a boy, well recalls the river roads where all the travel be- 

 tween towns and farms along the Ohio passed. These roads were washed into 

 the river and conveyed clown the stream year after year with each recurrence 

 of high water, the fences carried away, adjoining farms were swept into the 

 whirling water, acres at a time were thus lost by the land owners along the 

 banks. One house with which the writer was familiar was moved back from 

 the river bank four successive times, each time being taken several hundred 

 feet to a supposedly safe location. It was finally removed half a mile back 

 and the roadway changed to a similar distance. 



Meantime there was not, as is sometimes the case, any deposit upon the 

 opposite side of the river, but the breadth of the waterway was increased each 

 year and is now 1,200 feet broader than it was seventy-one years ago, at time of 

 the highest water of early days. 



But it is by no means the highest water only which is to be regretted on 

 account of removal of the forest. During the long period of drought which 

 follows, the springs having been dried up, the streams run low and the period 

 of extreme low water in which navigation is suspended or made very difficult 

 is greatly prolonged. 



Prior to 1862 there was no time within the knowledge of steamboatmen of 

 the '405 and '505 when the rivers of the West did not have a good boating 

 stage, usually 12 or 15 feet depth, while in more recent years the water has 

 been so low that teams were crossing the Ohio by fording, the water being but 

 two feet depth, the steamboats and crafts of every kind being idle for months 

 at a time. 



Many cities are dependent for water supply on the various streams and 

 during the low water stages the contamination is far more serious, the impuri- 

 ties being concentrated to such extent as to cause much sickness. Of course. 

 with all sewerage of cities polluting the streams, this becomes a serious mat- 

 ter when the water for a long time remains so low. During the floods of 188? 

 .-mil 1884 there was great suffering throughout the flooded districts, thousand- 

 being destitute who were relieved by charity. 



The temperature in February was what it usually is in May. Very un- 

 usual rains extended over all the States drained by the Ohio. The waters fall- 

 ing upon portions of fourteen States ran rapidly away and found an exit in the 

 swelling floods of the Ohio. 



